Most people have seen films about the Bridge over the River Kwai and the building of the Death Railway by the Japanese during WWII ... and it was with these films in mind that we visited the POW War cemetary (very moving) and the bridge itself. The bridge did not disappoint... it looked just like in the films and you could walk along the still-used train line right across the bridge. You wouldn't be allowed to do it in England - Health & Safety officials wo...

The bible (Lonely Planet) suggests that if you want to see the Floating Market at Damnoen Saduak to make your own way there the night before and get up at 7am to see the market without the tourist hoardes on tours from Bangkok...so that's what we did! The journey turned out to be more complex than we anticipated....isn't it always!? There are 2 buses that go to the town (the 78 which seemed to go every 10 minutes and the 996 that goes every 40) however every t...

Back in Chiang Mai Kim took the opportunity to do a Thai cooking course - great fun and the food was very tasty! Though the giant straw hat that trainee cooks had to wear seemed a bit over the top for hygiene requirements! We both then did a one day trek which included elephant riding through the Thai countryside. We bought bananas to feed our elephant which Mark managed to drop while getting on the elephant - the bananas were gobbled up in one fell swoop - comp...

Leaving Bangkok was another marathon journey....we teetered on the edge of an open sided boat with our backpacks down the Chao Phraya River (with random strangers commiserating about our choice of travel) before heading off into a maze of alleyways seeking the station. Once on the train we settled down for 15 hours overnight. It was actually quite exciting...we sampled a range of food from hawkers getting on at stations (Mark wasn't too keen on his fried egg comp...

It seemed like a great idea to book a ferry / VIP bus package to Bangkok...we had a vision of huge, soft reclining seats but no ...we spent 9 hours trying to sleep overnight in an ordinary coach with no leg room - comfy! We arrived in Bangkok at 5am with a crick in our necks, trying to fight off the ever-present hoardes of taxi drivers and touts who lurk even in the pre-dawn hours. We found a guest house fairly swiftly in Soi Rambutri, the classier end of the in...